Best Buy: Sorry We Lied (But Thanks for Your Money)
It's only proper that Best Buy President Brian Dunn wrote a letter of apology to customers about the launch of the Xbox 360. We cannot find one to purchase anywhere, for which Best Buy is clearly to blame. We are fairly certain that they were behind that whole Bay of Pigs thing, too. But that is not why President Dunn is apologizing.
Specifically, customers in some Best Buy stores were told that they were required to buy additional Xbox accessories or services if they wanted one of the sought-after Xbox 360 consoles, even though we advertised the Xbox 360 console alone. I want to be very clear that Best Buy does not condone pressuring customers to purchase items they may not want or that may not fit their lifestyle. In fact, these behaviors are in direct conflict with our desire to serve customers needs better than anyone else, and our values of honesty and integrity."That's why in the future, Best Buy employees will only pressure customers to purchase expensive, unnecessary Product Service Plans, because the margins on those are crazy good. Seriously, it's just a little paper pamphlet."
We applaud Dunn's decision to admit to the fuck up, but the actions of the employees towards Xbox purchasers wasn't an aberration—it was an extension of the same heavy-handed sales tactics they were taught to use in the first place.
Bonus link: Best Buy Hoarding Xbox 360s for Sale [Kotaku]
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Comments:
a good correlary about best buy's hi-pressure sales tactics:
http://www.itplays.net/2005/12/best_buy_holding_360_shipme...
i found this on gizmodo.
I only wanted to register in order to inform you a little better.
First off, just because a few employees screw up and don't know what they're doing, doesn't mean that Best Buy in general is a bad place to shop. Nowhere are they ever supposed to "pressure" anyone into buying anything extra. If they did, they were not following store SOP.
Second of all, I'd like to also mention that Best Buy doesn't sell PSPs (Product Service Plans) with XBOX 360's. It's called a PRP (Product Replacment Plan) in which if the console should ever die on you (not due to misuse or abuse of the product such as water damage or intentional breaking of the product) under normal conditions, we will replace it for you.
Lastly, though a PSP or PRP may be expensive, I would like to point out that on a computer package (Lets say a notebook computer for $800) you buy a PSP (for about $150) and something goes wrong in the future (HDD fails, Mobo goes dead, battery stops holding a charge, DC Pin fails to charge battery) then they'll fix it free of any other cost. Do you know the retail price on a motherboard for a laptop? Most of the newer ones are going for over $600... yes... almost the price of the computer. If the battery stops holding a charge, they replace it. AC Adapter stop working, bam, replacement. Those last two are ONLY covered under the PSP. MFG Warranty does not cover battery replacements.
So please think twice before complaining about the fact that some employee or employees of a store did something un-moral and un-ethical, and gather complete intel on the services they sell and offer.
You need to go back and read the WSJ interview with Brad Anderson to really get a grasp on this company. The Manhattan stores are all new and pre-converted.
There's far too much to say about Best Buy to fit in this small space. The first 4 or 5 episodes of YMMV Radio were all about this company.
The short version is this - if Best Buy screws you then go to BBB.ORG and file a complaint against their offices in Minnesota. This is the ONLY way you will EVER get anything out of them.